BRITAIN WILL SMASH SMALL BOAT GANGS

BRITAIN will destroy the business model of evil small boat gangs, Grant Shapps has declared.

- Michael Knowles

The Defence Secretary believes the UK and allies can defeat human traffickers and "stand strong" against enemy states using mass migration as a form of warfare.

He accused Russia of employing the tactic to destabilise Western democracies and said the UK can lead an "international conversation" on reforming global asylum rules.

He stressed: "With our allies, Britain will destroy the business model of evil criminal gangs. We are working tirelessly to battle malign influences and that includes hostile states trying to use migration as a weapon. As the Prime Minister said, if that requires us to update our laws and lead an international conversation to amend the postwar frameworks around asylum, we must do that." 

Mr Shapps described the malign mass migration tactic as "hybrid warfare" and insisted: "Enough is enough." He said: "A recent Joint Expeditionary Force meeting had nations saying Russia was using illegal migration as a means of war. It's a widely acknowledged problem.

"The Prime Minister knows the threats we face from enemies who work in underhand means to try to destabilise the democracy and freedoms we cherish.

"We will do what it takes to protect them. We will stand strong against hybrid warfare." A source close to Home Secretary James Cleverly added: "While we know hostile states will try this, and have tried it elsewhere, we won't tolerate it and we're ready for any attempt to destabilise our country with this form of hybrid warfare".

It comes as Rishi Sunak said on Saturday that Western governments must "tackle" illegal migration or the numbers arriving in Europe will "only grow".

The Prime Minister said hostile states will "see how unable we are to deal with this" and drive "people to our shores".